Beth Dutton's zingers cut deep. "Buddy, this is your one chance to leave me alone with your self-esteem intact," she warns a stranger.
Kelly Reilly's Yellowstone character is deliciously nasty with occasional streaks of soft-heartedness, all wrapped up in the sort of sexiness that could entice a dead man. Beth is also the most strategic thinker on the series.
"Beth is like a samurai," Reilly says of her character, the only daughter of John Dutton (Kevin Costner). "Her life is unimportant. The only thing that matters to her is the Yellowstone ranch. When do loyalty and devotion become out of balance and unhealthy? And what sort of father would let their daughter give her whole life to that?"
The recent announcement that the series is ending come November, when the final episodes return to Paramount Network, means this chapter of the Duttons' history is drawing to a close. But the family saga of fighting to keep their ranch, no matter the price, will continue to be chronicled in the Paramount+ prequel 1923, from Yellowstone cocreator and showrunner Taylor Sheridan, and the origin story of the ranch can be learned in Sheridan's 1883.
Reilly has worked since she was a teenager, but Yellowstone put her on the map. She's often stopped by fans in airports when traveling from the Montana set to New York to her English country cottage. "I look forward to returning to my quiet life after playing her," Reilly says of Beth. "I love [getting on] the rollercoaster of her, and then I love getting off equally as much."
The part makes Reilly dig deep. "You say things you didn't know you were capable of, things that may have been dormant until you excavate them for the character," she says in her own British accent.
Primarily, Reilly notes, she's not as bold as Beth. The daughter of a police officer and hospital receptionist, she wasn't interested in academics and figured she'd work with horses, since she's always loved them. A teacher noticed her shyness and suggested drama class.
By the age of sixteen, she landed her first job — on Prime Suspect , starring Helen Mirren. She went on to appear in films (Pride & Prejudice, Sherlock Holmes), television (Black Box, True Detective, Britannia) and the Broadway revival of Old Times.
Even before the announcement of the Yellowstone finale, Reilly acknowledged, "This can't go on forever.
"This is a story about a dying family, a dying way of life," she added. "I actually think there's a tragedy. Whatever happens to the land — it's getting close — but I imagine it will free them because there's a burden in her defending of it."
This article originally appeared in emmy magazine issue #6, 2023, under the title, "Stone Cold."
